{"id":764283,"date":"2026-02-20T09:52:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/764283\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:52:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:52:33","slug":"49ers-news-ranking-the-5-most-valuable-niners-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/764283\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers news: Ranking the 5 most valuable Niners in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In a year with a multitude of injuries, there were several players who stepped up for the San Francisco 49ers in 2025 and others who maintained a high level of play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">With that said, let\u2019s revisit the 2025 season and look at who were the team\u2019s most valuable players last year, ranking the top five in no order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Honorable Mentions: Mac Jones, George Kittle<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">These two earned honorable mentions because they didn\u2019t play for the whole season, but were crucial when on the field.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The 49ers don\u2019t make the playoffs without Mac Jones, who played well in relief of Brock Purdy and had a 5-3 record as a starter. Similarly, George Kittle only played 11 games, but recorded 57 catches for 628 yards and seven touchdowns for the 49ers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">He was especially huge during San Francisco\u2019s five-game winning streak, averaging 6.2 catches and 83 yards per game in that stretch, while scoring four touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">McCaffrey was fourth in MVP voting and won the Comeback Player of the Year Award after going over 2,000 yards from scrimmage and recording 17 touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">He was a workhorse, rushing for 1,202 yards and 10 touchdowns on 311 carries (second most in NFL), while catching 102 passes for 924 yards and seven more scores. He was in the top 10 for receptions as a running back, and really got going towards the end of the season as a rusher.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Yes, the efficiency and chunk plays weren\u2019t up to par for McCaffrey, but his ability as a pass-catcher was huge for the 49ers offense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Purdy only played in nine games, but he was quite important to the 49ers success down the stretch. After throwing seven interceptions in his first four starts of the year, Purdy turned things around and had a pair of five-touchdown games while leading the offense during the five-game win streak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">He finished the year with 2,167 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions, while going 7-2 as the starter in the regular season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Williams wasn\u2019t on the NFL Protector of the Year list, but he had big responsibilities for the 49ers as the anchor at left tackle, and was crucial to the offensive line\u2019s success as a whole. While he\u2019s heading into his age-38 season, Williams is still playing at a very good level and had an underrated year in 2025 after dealing with injuries in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It wouldn\u2019t be a surprise to see him get extended this offseason with one year left on his deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Stout had a learning curve as a rookie, getting targeted quite often earlier in the year. But he had serious growth as the season went on and was one of the team\u2019s best defenders over the second half of the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">He added physicality and strong man coverage skills to an inconsistent secondary and proved to be a key contributor in Year 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The 49ers got an elite kicker from free agency in Week 2 after releasing Jake Moody, as Piniero missed just one field goal during the regular season, going 28 of 29 on the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">He was stellar from all ranges, even hitting a 59-yard field goal, and was crucial in a number of close games for the 49ers. He\u2019s a key player to bring back in the offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a year with a multitude of injuries, there were several players who stepped up for the San&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,6,1161,252,52067,1137,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-764283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","13":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-roster","14":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","15":"tag-sanfrancisco","16":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116102350059363532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}